By DOUG SCHMITZ
Iowa Correspondent

DES MOINES, Iowa — During its recent annual meeting in Dover, Del., Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey was elected to serve as vice president of the National Assoc. of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA).

“The NASDA gives the state departments of agriculture a unified voice on national agricultural issues and provides an important platform for public policy discussions,” said Northey, who was finishing up combining corn on his Spirit Lake farm last week.

The NASDA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan association that represents the commissioners, secretaries and directors of the departments of agriculture in all 50 states and four U.S. territories. A fourth-generation corn and soybean farmer, Northey, 51, is serving his first term as Iowa’s elected agriculture secretary.

He said his priorities have been advancing the opportunities available through renewable energy, promoting conservation and stewardship and telling the story of Iowa agriculture.

“I’m excited about the opportunity and look forward to continuing to work with the board and all NASDA members on issues important to agriculture in Iowa and across the nation,” said Northey, who is running for reelection in Iowa on Nov. 2.

Northey graduated with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural business from Iowa State University in 1981 and received an MBA from ISU in 2004. He has been with the National Corn Growers Assoc. and served as representative to the Renewable Fuels Assoc., the American Sugar Alliance and the U.S. Feed Grains Council. In 1997, he was selected for the Commission on 21st Century Production Agriculture, a group charged with making recommendations for a 2002 farm bill.

Currently, Northey is a commissioner of the Dickinson County Soil and Water Conservation District, which has been actively pursuing water quality in the Iowa Great Lake Watershed that includes Spirit Lake and East and West Okoboji.

Northey is also a member of the Bennett Roundtable of the Farm Foundation. As the new NASDA vice president, Northey will be on-track to be the organization’s president starting next fall, and to host the leaders of the state departments of agriculture in Iowa in 2012, if reelected to a second term as ag secretary.